Cherry Newbery

Club Secretary

Born in Leigh-on-Sea, the Hatters' club secretary Cherry Newbery may be an Essex girl - but she can rightly claim to be Luton Town through and through.

Not only has she been personally connected to the club for 26 years, but her grandfather was Jimmy Yardley, who played regularly for Town between 1926 and 1932.  He was a regular on the score sheet during his time and even bagged a hat-trick against Reading towards the end of his Kenilworth Road career.

As a young woman, Cherry first followed the Hatters fortunes from the terraces but then became part of the backroom staff in 1974 after answering an advertisement for a cashier.  She had previously worked in a local bank.

With a young family to look after, Cherry went part-time and by the time the Hatters returned to the top division in 1982, she was employed part-time in the role of programme distributor.  She took charge of a team of 20-plus programme sellers and organised postal subscriptions, etc.

Her administrative skills saw her carry out a number of roles in the Kenilworth Road offices and during the 1980's she moved into the ticket office where she worked long hours supervising arrangements for the many big matches in those heady days.

By the early 1990's, she was employed as admin manager in the commercial department and then in the summer of 1994 she secured the important role of club secretary, replacing John Smylie.  It was all change that summer for the Hatters, with Terry Westley taking the manager's chair and many new arrivals on the pitch including Steve Davis, Graham Alexander and David Oldfield.

By the end of the 1990s Town had slipped down to Division Two and many fans were unhappy over the way the club was being run.  The departure of David Kohler appeased some of the disgruntled supporters, but, sadly, in recent times Cherry has also had to take her share of personal abuse.

Cherry's popularity with the Hatters supporters has grown vastly following events at Kenilworth Road during the summer of 2003.  On Friday 23 May 2003, Hatters fans were stunned when the then Luton Town manager Joe Kinnear and his assistant Mick Harford were sacked.

Earlier that week, owner Mike Watson-Challis had confirmed the sale of the club to the now legendary 'mystery consortium', which was originally heralded as good news by the club.

But supporters groups had urged caution, and news of the sackings saw their worst fears realised.

Mick Harford was clearly shaken by events, and so to was Joe Kinnear. But the manager, hard though it undoubtedly was, kept his thoughts to himself as he immediately called in the lawyers.

Privately Kinnear was seething. One minute he was expecting funds to at last finance a promotion push, the next minute he was being shown the door - although details of his salary were made public in a bid to show that it was a genuine cost-cutting measure.

The following week the new directors were reported to be meeting at Kenilworth Road. As word got out, fans began to gather at the ground with banners in support of Joe and Mick and cheered a brief appearance from Joe Kinnear.

But those who arrived later had to drive though angry fans outside the ground, and there were ugly scenes.

The man who spoke to reporters was one time Peterborough director Roger Terrell, who had been brought in in an advisory capacity with a view to becoming the new Chairman. But it soon became clear that he had bitten off more than he could chew.

"I'm not part of the consortium. We've been asked by the consortium to assist on the football side" he said.

"But we've perhaps got a few questions for the consortium because we didn't realise the strength of feeling of the fans and obviously their needs to be some communication."

A week later Terrell quit. He and Lee Power, who would probably have been his vice chairman issued a statement saying:

"As a result of the reaction of the supporters, we decided to reconsider out position and we have had further discussions with the investors in the club and we have decided to decline their offer to be involved.  We wish Luton all the best for the future."

Of course the crux of the matter was the land at junction 10 of the M1. This was the council's preferred site for a new stadium, and the site where former chairman David Kohler had gone through a lengthy planning inquiry only to be denied by the lack of M1 widening.

For any new investors, this was the reason for a takeover, but Eric Hood seemed unsure as to the exact detail of the sale.

Gradually names began to emerge, including that of John Gurney who had previously been involved at Bedford rugby club. Those were troubled times for the Blues, with their very existence in grave doubt, and Luton Town supporters began to fear the worst.

As he had done at Bedford, Mr. Gurney at first conducted much of his busines via the club website, and published a scheme for a new stadium at junction 10 which including amongst other things a Grand Prix circuit.

In a bid to appease fans, he invited them to vote for the new manager, but via a premium rate phone poll!

Meanwhile, the club was in turmoil. The chief scout was the next to depart. Sacked by letter.

It might have been signed by Cherry, but the club's secretary was emerging as the one person standing between Luton Town and closure. Things were that bad, and even five months on, her views haven't changed.

"It was definitely the very worst summer I've ever known in all the years I've been at the club and wouldn't want anybody at the club or the supporters to go through that again" she said.

"It was a very, very serious situation."

Meanwhile the managerial vote continued, and a shortlist was drawn up. Joe Kinnear was on it, so too was Steve Cotterill the former Cheltenham boss who had lost his job at Sunderland when Howard Wilkinson was sacked, and also ex-Hatter Mike Newell.

A press conference was called and the results, eventually, announced. Mike Newell was declared the winner.

Whether Kinnear would have returned is unclear. John Gurney had visited him in Spain and held lengthy talks, and offered a new contract, but when Kinnear broke his silence he was scathing about Gurney's plans, and also defended his spending which whilst low on transfer fees had seen a massive rise in wages. He was also able to give his version of the sacking, and the people involved.

When Newell took over, John Gurney was of course still at the helm, but behind-the-scenes much was going on in a bid to genuinely save the club, as supporters witholding season-ticket money was strangling the club's cash flow.

Mike Watson-Challis - who still has to our knowledge a major stake in things by virtue of land ownership at junction 10, signed over his debts to the supporters group Trust In Luton. They duly called in the administrative receiver Barry Ward to wrest control from Gurney.

One of Barry Ward's first jobs was to bring back Mick Harford, who with Gurney gone, felt he could return, and his role as Director of Football was secured just before the start of the season.

But financial troubles have remained throughout the opening months of the season. As wage discussions with the players threatened to undermine all the efforts of messrs Newell and Harford.

However, in December 2003, there was, at last, light at the end of the tunnel as a new consortium, headed by former general manager Bill Tomlins, made a bid for the club to become the new owners.

There is no doubt, however, that Cherry was the jewel in Luton's crown during that dreadful summer.  She was always prepared to answer any questions that the Hatters fans had to ask and she even went to the extent of telling fans who wished to purchase season tickets not to do so during Gurney's period in control - something that she admitted felt very strange, but that she equally knew was the right thing to do.

Her relationship with the Hatters fans has therefore soared and now that fans are greeting the new 'Mike Newell era' with such optimism it could be that some of the heat will be taken off the likes of Cherry!

As well as football, she has in the past devoted plenty of time and energy to her other love - basketball.  She became one of the top officials in the country, officiating cup finals and even appearing on Channel Four TV in her role as a table official.  Before she started a family she used to turn out for the Stopsley club herself.

Need to contact Cherry Newbery?  If so, then click HERE!

Profile By:  James Garley